THIS MACHINE (theme of Team Dark) - SONIC HEROES || Prog Metal Cover

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Originally composed/written by: Jun Senoue, Amir Derakh, Ryan Shuck
Originally performed by: Julien-K
Arranged by: Triple B Music
Lead Guitars/Lead Synths/Rhythm Guitars/Bass Performed by: Triple B Music
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Here we have the first proper vocal cover I've done since November (last one had vocals, but there were no words and they weren't in the original song :P ). This is also the first Sonic arrangement I've done in quite some time! I pulled this one out for Dwelling of Duels (as most of my covers have been this year so far, especially lately). I listened to this song a TON when I was younger (about 10 or 11, I got my first MP3 player around that time and the game was relatively new so I was obsessed with it lol) and had been on my list for a while, so it feels great to knock this one off the list!

Since it's a vocal song with a complete structure and no looping, I kept it pretty much the same as the original, but I played with the feel a little bit in some parts, and changed the ending slightly. I also dropped the key all the way from B minor to F# minor. I often downtune vocal songs to make them more comfortable to sing, but in this case it was more of a stylistic choice, as I wanted to get a bit more of a VOLA vibe with the super low guitars, and the bass playing in the same octave. I ended up with a bit of a gritty, muddy sound which I kind of like, although the original DoD mix was a bit too muddy and bass-heavy, which I hopefully improved since that version.

I felt a little anxious about the singing in this one at first, since I used more of a rough vocal style, and even a bit whisper-y at parts, which is a side of my voice I haven't shown as much. I also sang a pretty high C# note towards the end as a bit of a scream, and was unsure whether that would come across as forced or weak or whatever, but I think it turned out pretty well. I purposefully put a lot of distortion and some saturation on the vocals as well, since that's how the original sounded and I wanted to emulate that.

This was also the first time I used some alternate percussion in parts, namely the more EDM-style kick drum and the reverse hi-hat. In order to emulate many of the sound effects from the original song, I actually played them all on guitar and experimented with automating some post-effects like the Metalizer and MorphFilter plugins that come with cubase. I think those turned out pretty well considering they don't sound quite like the original, and certainly don't sound like a guitar at all for the most part lol. I also tried my hand at doing some choppy vocal effects for the first time, since I felt like the song would be missing them from the original.

Although I haven't uploaded anything in a month, I actually have been working on other things; I contributed some acoustic guitar to a collab project that I will share when it's out; I've also been working on a track for a Pixel Mixers album, and I have another project which was intended for last month's Pixel Mixers contest and the Chill Out contest, but I abandoned it to save myself some sanity, and also so I could focus on this project since I really wanted to get it done. Maybe I'll finish that one this month since it will fit the current Pixel Mixers theme; but my plans always change, so we'll see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy listening to this one, and thanks for taking the time for said listening!
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Instruments/Tunings used:
Ibanez GS205 Bass (A E A D G - capo on 2)
Ibanez RGMS8 (F# B E A D G B E)
Sterling JP100 (E A D G B E)
M-Audio Keystation 88 (it's a keyboard)

Gear used:
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3rd Gen) Audio Interface
Geekoto Studio Lights
Samsung Galaxy A70 (camera)
Geekoto AT24Pro Dreamer Tripod
Gruv Gear Fret Wraps
MXL 440 Mic

Software/Plugins Used:
Cubase 12 Artist
EZ Drummer 2 (Drumkit From Hell extension)
Halion Sonic SE
AmpliTube 4
IVG2 (Saturation)
Melodyne 5
MAGIX Movie Edit Pro
Pixlr
MusicVid.Org (visualizer)